


Her Colonel's Voice

by WotanAnubis



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles X
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Implied D/s themes, Or perhaps explicit ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 16:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5382083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Irina's feelings for Elma are complicated in their simplicity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Colonel's Voice

**Author's Note:**

> I, like many others, haven't actually finished Xenoblade Chronicles X yet. Obviously this means everything in this ficlet could be laughably wrong. But the idea for this little scene popped into my head a few days ago and refused to leave, so here it is.

Irina felt awkward when she followed the Colonel into a clothing store. They were out shopping. Nothing new there, the two of them often went out shopping when they were off-duty. But normally they went window-shopping for armour, guns or, on rare occasions, little ornaments and things to liven up the barracks.

This was the first time the Colonel had walked into clothing store before. And, considering all the high-quality clothes draped all over the elegantly posed mannequins, it probably wasn't even a clothing store. It was probably a fashion boutique or somesuch.

The Colonel strode confidently along the racks and racks of clothes, casting appreciative glances left and right. Irina trailed behind, feeling vaguely intimidated by all the wealth on display and annoyed at feeling intimidated. Clothes just weren't her thing. Never had been. When she was young, all that mattered that she wore enough so she wouldn't freeze to death. After that, it'd been uniforms all the way to Mira.

"Looking for anything in particular, Colonel?" Irina asked.

Elma paused, feeling the fabric of some garment or other. "Have I ever told you what I'd do if you kept calling me that?"

"Yes, ma'am," Irina said, resisting a grin. "Frequently."

"Which is?"

"You'll start giving me orders again, ma'am."

"And yet..." said Elma.

"You'll always be my Colonel, ma'am." said Irina.

Elma gave her a pensive look, then walked off through the racks. Irina followed, feeling oddly better. Soon enough the Colonel stopped, turned to yet another rack of clothes and pulled out a dress.

"What do you think?" she asked.

It was a dress. It was light purple with a pattern of slightly darker purple roses. There were no obvious frilly bits. That was about it, as far as Irina's professional opinion was concerned.

"Nice," she said, in that tone of voice which meant 'No Comment'.

"I think it'd look good on you," said Elma.

"Not really a dress kind of person, ma'am," said Irina awkwardly.

"Well, we all have to start somewhere," Elma said. "Would you like to try it?"

Irina stared at the dress as though it could pull a gun on her at any moment. "Not particularly, if it's all the same with you, ma'am."

"Try the dress, soldier. That's an order."

Irina saluted. "Yes, ma'am."

Irina was inside a changing booth pulling off her jacket when she finally realized what had just happened. She'd obeyed the Colonel, just like that. They were off duty, the Colonel technically wasn't her superior officer any more and anyway officers couldn't just order people to try on dresses anyway. If Vandham had tried a stunt like this, Irina would've told him to shove it.

But the Colonel had told her to do something and she did it without a second thought because that's the way the world worked. That's how _she_ worked.

Irina would be the fi- the last to admit she wasn't a very introspective person, but she got the definite feeling she was on the verge of some kind of revelation about herself. She had a pretty good hunch about what it was, but didn't know if she liked it or not.

Well, whatever. Those were thoughts for later. Right now, she had to deal with this purple dress. She could just not try it on and hand it back to the Colonel. Probably the Colonel wouldn't mind. She might actually be pleased.

After one or two false starts Irina managed to slip into the dress. She looked at her reflection in the booth's mirror and didn't know what she saw. Yes, obviously, it was herself in a dress, but Irina's mental image of herself had never included dresses and so seeing herself in one was just... weird.

Pretending the young woman in the mirror was someone else helped. A bit. And Irina had to admit the Colonel had been right. The dress did look kind of good on the woman in the mirror. Even though she didn't know how to wear it.

Irina pulled the booth's curtain aside and stepped out. The Colonel had been leaning against a nearby wall, but now straightened up and looked at her.

"Hmm," she said. It could've meant anything.

Irina gestured helplessly. "What do you think, ma'am?"

The Colonel looked her up and down and Irina felt herself starting to blush under her gaze.

"Very nice," said Elma. "It suits you, really."

"Doesn't really feel like it," Irina replied.

"You'll get used to it," said Elma. "Or perhaps not. Who knows?"

"Just as you say, ma'am."

"Would you like it if I bought it for you?" Elma asked with surprising gentleness.

"I'd appreciate any gift you'd care to give me, ma'am," Irina replied.

The Colonel stepped closer and placed her hand on Irina's bare arm, suddenly increasing the dress's value a hundredfold.

"There's something I want to ask you, Irina," she said, "And I want your own, honest answer."

"Of course, Colonel."

"Would you care to go out to dinner with me?"

Irina didn't even think about the answer.

"Yes, ma'am. Colonel. Elma."

The Colonel smiled. Bits of Irina tingled.

"Will you be wearing that dress?" she asked.

"Only if you order me to, ma'am."

The Colonel's eyes gleamed. "Would you like me to?"

* * * * *

Irina wore her new purple dress to dinner that night. The Colonel, too, wore a dress - something a lot fancier and in red. It looked very good on her. Irina didn't know how to describe in what way it looked good on her, only that wearing it made her even more beautiful than normal. And the Colonel was already beautiful to start with.

Irina wondered if, maybe, the Colonel had similar thoughts about her and her purple dress.

A waiter bustled up to their table, pen at the ready.

"Good evening, ladies. Are you ready to order?" he asked and then looked very confused when the two women at the table started giggling.


End file.
